Vic Falls embarks on flies, cockroaches control programme

VICTORIA FALLS Council has embarked on a cockroach and fly control programme after discovering that the pests were breeding in sewage pipes and litter dump sites, posing a health threat to residents.

By Nokuthaba Dlamini

Council health officials said since the beginning of year, they had been receiving many complaints from all the town’s 11 wards over the pests.

Public health officer, Tongai Ncube said they were embarking on a door-to-door fumigation exercise, amid fears that insects might carry the cholera bacterium from Zambia into Zimbabwe.

“We are monitoring everything that can be a health threat to our residents. After receiving numerous complaints, we decided to act swiftly. The insects breed from different sites where it’s normally humid and they spread to where people stay,” he said.

“The situation is so bad such that even in offices, they are there. As you know that cockroaches feed on anything, we can’t ignore them and also considering this cholera outbreak in Zambia, they can spread it, as they move into people’s homes and contaminating food.

“For flies, we have seen numbers reduce after we fumigated at the dump site, where they were also breeding.”

Ncube said council often faces resistance from residents, who do not want their homes fumigated.

Towards the end of last year, council embarked on a mosquito-spraying programme to combat malaria.

The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, which is a Chapter 12 Independent Commission with the mandate to foster national healing in Zimbabwe, needs to have it’s 10-year mandate reinstated if it is to fulfil its Constitutional mandate. ...